Former Aquinas midfielder/forward Krystian Witkowski realized a dream today. He was taken as the 13th pick in the second round of the MLS Supplemental Draft. His father was a professional player in Europe and Witkowski has seen time with Poland’s Under-18 national team. He was a three-time NSCAA All-Region and All-MAAC at Marist College, which has never had a player drafted by MLS. If memory serves me right, the only former Section V players drafted by MLS have been Brian Bliss, Dema Kovalenko, Aleksey Korol and Yuri Lavinenko, so it has been more than a decade since a local player was taken by MLS. UPDATE: My memory was wrong, former Pittsford Sutherland star Ian Pilarski was drafted by Chicago in 2004.

“I am so excited, this is such a great honor. I would like to thank everyone who got me here, especially Coach Viggiano, my fellow seniors Troy, Fred, Lucas, Alex and Tim, my agent Ted, my high school coach Howard Allen, the Nelson Capello Family, Ian McGinisey and my family” Witkowski, who had 21 goals and 12 assists in his college career, was quoted as saying on Marist College’s website. “This core of people helped me get to this point and I really appreciate everything they’ve done.”

LANCERS COME UP SHORT: They led 2-0 after the first period, trailed 7-2 at halftime and fought back to make it only a one-point deficit, 9-8, in the third period, but the Rochester Lancers couldn’t hold down the MISL champion Milwaukee Wave and lost, 23-10, on Monday night at home. Here’s the writeup at MISLsoccer.com and here’s our story by colleague Will Cleveland. The Lancers (6-9) and Syracuse (6-9) are now tied for second place, 4.5 games behind Baltimore in the Eastern Division. With nine games left, it’s improbable Baltimore will stumble. So it’s a Rochester-Syracuse fight for that second playoff spot, and that means Saturday’s 7 p.m. match at Syracuse’s OnCenter is HUGE and all the pressure is on the Silver Knights. The Lancers have beaten Syracuse in three of four matchups. The Knights have to sweep the final two from Rochester to have a chance to beat the Lancers in a tiebreaker for the final spot if they finished with the same record. So a Lancers’ win Saturday clinches the tiebreaker and also would give it a one-game lead on ‘Cuse.

ABBY MAY SIT: Everything I’m hearing is that it’s very possible Abby Wambach may not play in WPS until after the Olympics. With her sore Achilles, I can’t blame her and knowing Abby I wouldn’t be shocked to see her still attend a few WPS matches before going to London to help the league. Here’s a Philly.com interview with new WPS commissioner Jennifer O’Sullivan with thoughts on that and more.

Jeff DiVeronica has covered professional soccer and the Rhinos for the Democrat and Chronicle since the team's inception in 1996. "Devo's Direct Kicks" takes aim mostly at Rochester soccer, but will also highlight the USL, MLS and U.S. national team play. Devo, his nickname since college at St. John Fisher, also hosts two weekly radio shows each Saturday on WHTK-AM/FM (1280/107.3 or www.whtk.com). "Kick This!" (11 a.m.) features soccer talk, while the Canandaigua National Bank High School Sports Show (noon) covers Section V sports. E-mail Jeff at jdiveron@DemocratandChronicle.com.
Or follow him on Twitter: @RocDevo